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Advocacy

Understood's Free 100-Book Give-Away: Help for Parents to Empower a Child with Dyslexia

5 Video Shorts from Experts Point the Way to School Success for Dyslexic, Other Learners

Short videos can go a long way to tell a promising story of how students with dyslexia and other special needs who learn differently can succeed in school. The videos chosen here run less than seven minutes. Each can be a resource to raise community awareness or to impart the latest thinking to aid professional development.

"Leap into Learning Differently" Website Debuts with BAM Radio Podcasts for All Educators

"Leap Into Learning Differently," a new website by Sharon LePage Plante, is crafted carefully to include "amazing people who care about learning for all students." She is site founder and also a tireless teacher, tech director, and social-media-in-education aficionado who won a 2014 Bammy Award for her work with special needs students.

El Deafo: Virginia Author-Illustrator Turns Her Use of an Assistive Technology Device into a Strength

Seven Ways to Give Students with Print Disabilities Accessible Educational Materials for Learning

With IEP "season" just beginning, says the National Center for Accessible Educational Materials (AEM), two webinars are coming in February to help educators and families know the basics and determine a student's eligibility for alternatives during instruction when books in print are barriers to learning.

Alternatives to print help to assure that students with print disabilities are able to participate in the general education curriculum and make progress toward their IEP goals.

Headstrong Nation's "Learn The Facts" sheet underpins current thinking by this national advocacy group of adult dyslexics and parents. The goal is to achieve greater understanding and acceptance of the challenges and strengths of those who struggle to read due to this neurologically-based learning difference.

Too good to be true? Treatments and therapies for LD

Parents of kids who struggle in school want to help their child in any way they can. This is especially true for parents of kids with learning disabilities. I've sat through many conferences with parents of a child with LD who are eager to find "the thing" — the type of instruction, the experience, or the treatment that will help their child struggle less and succeed in school.

Resources for parents of kids with special needs: Back-to-school edition

Parents of kids with special needs, whether a child has learning or physical differences, often have additional considerations and worries to contend with during back to school time. I've gathered a few resources that may smooth over a bump or two and get you started on your advocacy efforts for the year.

An important message: no bullying allowed!

Everyone has been there in real time or vicariously. It sometimes feels like its reached epidemic proportions. There are all kinds of reasons, none of them good. Each incident has numerous victims who come in all sizes and ages.

I'm talking about bullying, of course. And because bullying is so prevalent, October has been designated as National Bullying Prevention Month sponsored by PACER.